Also, an added bonus for any StarCraft II players out there - you can now beta test the awesome custom games Blizzard showed off at BlizzCon: Aiur Chef, StarJeweled, and Left 2 Die!

Check out the full Blizzard posts after the break!

Blizzard Posts

..on 2200 Rating PVP Weapons Being Delayed

As previously announced (http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1567814533?page=1), Conquest items requiring 2200 rating were made available today, January 25, with the exception of weapons. We plan to make the 2200 weapons available approximately two weeks after the release of patch 4.0.6.

The decision to further delay availability of weapons requiring 2200 rating was not made lightly. Currently very few guilds are clearing PvE content that drops weapons of this caliber, which would make rated Battlegrounds and Arenas the primary source for top-tier weapons. We of course don’t want players who are pursuing PvE content to feel as though they must engage in heavy PvP to obtain these weapons in order to be competitive or successful.

We do have some plans to help avoid similar situations in the future, and we’ll share more details when they become available.

You will get a negative reaction with your decision to delay 2200 arena weapons.You will get a negative overreaction with your decision not to communicate with us about it.But then again, you probably already knew that.

Sometimes, you have to make an unpopular decision, and you take a lot of heat for it. I understand that you guys aren't happy, and I'm sorry about that.

With regard to the weapon delay, as with any change which affects your gameplay, we always prefer to provide advance notice whenever possible, but in some situations it isn't an option. Unfortunately, this was one of those cases.

Some of you may recall that there were times in the past when it was common for the Arenas to be flooded by geared raiders actively engaging in arena matches exclusively to acquire weapons for the sake of defeating PvE content. That's not the intended design for arena rewards (that they be part of PvE progression), and that was a situation that we were hoping to avoid now. Raid content is very challenging currently, and as a direct result, there are fewer top tier weapons floating around. What we didn't want was a 'gold rush' on arenas, which would diffuse the competitive space there as well as give PvE focused players an undue advantage for raid content.

Ultimately, what we really want is parity in the availability of top end PvP and PvE weaponry. We want to see top end PvP and PvE items filtering into the player community at roughly the same time. This delay is an effort to achieve that aforementioned parity in this case.

...on the Paladin Healing Nerf Actually Being a Buff

Related change: now increases the effectiveness of your healing spells by 10%. (down from 15%)

Right, kind of. We discovered that Conviction (which can give up to a 9% healing bonus) was broken. It affected paladin self heals, but not healing other targets. Since we think that paladin healing throughput is in an overall good place we didn't want a 9% bonus sticking around. So we fixed Conviction and reduced the Holy passive, Walk in the Light, from 15% to 10%. Which actually does end up with a net 4% gain overall, assuming Conviction has near 100% uptime, which isn't too unreasonable.

Since it was applied in a hotfix the Walk in the Light tooltip won't be updated until 4.0.6.

...on Tabard Storage Woes

Ok seriously... I have roughly 30 tabards and it takes up my whole main bank space, can we have a "Tabard Tab" in the bank that you could buy for like 1k gold and then you put all your tabards in? because this is ridiculous.

This is something we've been looking into for a while, and we're confident that we'll be able to implement a feature sometime in the future that gives players a better storage solution for their tabards. We're not sure if that feature will be a cosmetic tab or a drop-down list similar to titles just yet, though; there's still several factors that we need to consider carefully (certain tabards have on-use abilities, for example, which makes storing them a bit more complicated) before we can settle on the best course of action.

A 75 slot tabard only bag and bank slot doesn't sound any more complicated than a 32 slot mining bag.

Is that really the most elegant solution, though? It might be quickest and simplest, but that doesn't mean there aren't better alternatives available. If we can implement a type of storage that's integrated into the character UI and doesn't take up extra bank space, then that would be ideal.

That option might not be technically possible due to the way some tabards work, but it's something we're investigating.

Are you referring to an appearance tab for cosmetic gear options?

No, but I can see the confusion. I just mean an additional tab that's superficial or non-essential (the literal definition of "cosmetic").

For this, give us a huge bank slot or bag or keyring equivalent and then make something pointlessly complex if you wish.

We're not trying to over complicate the situation, but if we're looking at adding a new feature, we want to make sure it's meaningful and appropriate for the game in the long-term. (Or, you know, at least try to.)

Right now, we're considering a variety of options because we agree that tabard storage would be great, and some of those options extend beyond simply adding another bank slot -- not because they're complex, but because we believe they'll make the most sense and feel the best when you're in game.

Exactly this. And I wish that Blizzard would start recognizing it.

We're not against interim solutions on principle by any means, especially if we feel they're worthwhile. It's just that we have to tread lightly and always be mindful of what happens to those stopgaps once the final product is released.

..on the Inevitable Demise of PVP Double 2-Piece Bonuses

Right now some hybrid classes benefit from wearing a pair of 2 piece set bonuses in PvP instead of their 4 piece bonus. We don't much like that behavior though, and we're going to eventually make the two bonuses exclusive so you can only ever have one 2 piece bonus at a time. We're not going to make that change in 4.0.6 as we realize some people have spent a lot of points to buy into the double-2 piece bonuses. However, it is likely we'll make the change at the start of the next PvP season.

...on Tradeskill Reagent Justice Point Costs

They're definitely not cost effective and certainly not meant for everyone. Even still, there are scores of people out there with large excesses of Justice Points, with no need (or ability) to obtain more, and nothing to spend them on. This provides an excellent alternative for a select portion of players.

For everyone else who isn't concerned with the Justice Point cap or how to spend them, these vendors can be disregarded. They're not meant to replace the activity of farming for tradeskill materials for the general populace.

Everything Else

Check out the full blog post for a quick summary of each custom game as well as some basic instructions on how to play.

Aiur Chef, StarJeweled, and Left 2 Die, three new Blizzard-made custom games for StarCraft II, are now available for beta testing on Battle.net. While these custom games are still under development and we don't yet have a release date to share, we wanted to give everyone the opportunity to test them out and give feedback before they're officially released.

...

To play the beta versions of Aiur Chef, StarJeweled, or Left 2 Die, simply go to the Multiplayer tab in StarCraft II and look for the custom games window. A few of these games have more than one difficulty setting, so select the level of challenge that's best for you. We hope you enjoy them, and we're looking forward to hearing what you think.

Comments

Comment by Interest

I like how you made the part about Tradeskill stuff in larger text and bolded it. =D

Comment by Monday

on 2011/01/25 16:46:40

I like how you made the part about Tradeskill stuff in larger text and bolded it. =D

I thought it was rather funny as well.

As for the article itself, I really hope they act on the tabard stuff. That'd be nice.

Comment by ArgentSun

on 2011/01/25 16:49:29

It was actually because of a missing closing tag for the header above :P

Comment by EmberDione

on 2011/01/25 16:53:01

They have been talking about that Tabard change for like a year now. They need to just do *something*. I don't care if the solution is elegant. I care that I have 25+ tabards taking up one slot each in my bank.

Comment by Interest

on 2011/01/25 16:56:00

I like how you made the part about Tradeskill stuff in larger text and bolded it. =D

I thought it was rather funny as well.

As for the article itself, I really hope they act on the tabard stuff. That'd be nice.

I'm still hoping for "gear sets" (i.e. storage boxes for set equipment. For instance, if I had 8/8 Giantstalkers, I can consolidate them into a single item called "Giantstalker's Set 8/8" and disassemble it as I wish in the future. But the "set" item box takes up one inventory on its own.)

Hell, they have it on Runescape. Is it hard?

Comment by Monday

on 2011/01/25 16:56:34

I like how you made the part about Tradeskill stuff in larger text and bolded it. =D

I thought it was rather funny as well.

As for the article itself, I really hope they act on the tabard stuff. That'd be nice.

I'm still hoping for "gear sets" (i.e. storage boxes for set equipment. For instance, if I had 8/8 Giantstalkers, I can consolidate them into a single item called "Giantstalker's Set 8/8" and disassemble it as I wish in the future. But the "set" item box takes up one inventory on its own.)

Ooh, that'd be rather nice. I could keep any RP sets I wanted in one set, along with my Wrath raiding set, my BC set, etc.

Comment by Interest

on 2011/01/25 17:02:26

Oh yes. You should have to buy the boxes for a relatively good sum of gold.

They should at least force a gold sink considering every realm's economy is probably flooded with gold atm.

Comment by 05K4R

on 2011/01/25 17:12:06

I'm still hoping for "gear sets" (i.e. storage boxes for set equipment. For instance, if I had 8/8 Giantstalkers, I can consolidate them into a single item called "Giantstalker's Set 8/8" and disassemble it as I wish in the future. But the "set" item box takes up one inventory on its own.)

Hell, they have it on Runescape. Is it hard?

That would be awesome! But what to do if you have the same item in several sets?

Comment by Monday

on 2011/01/25 17:12:11

Aye, definitely. Especially since with so much raw material flowing in there isn't any point in spending a lot of money because you could easily get some yourself.

Max level ores and the like excluded of course.

Comment by Interest

on 2011/01/25 17:28:52

I'm still hoping for "gear sets" (i.e. storage boxes for set equipment. For instance, if I had 8/8 Giantstalkers, I can consolidate them into a single item called "Giantstalker's Set 8/8" and disassemble it as I wish in the future. But the "set" item box takes up one inventory on its own.)

Hell, they have it on Runescape. Is it hard?

That would be awesome! But what to do if you have the same item in several sets?

Well essentially you actually put the item into the "box." So there should be no issue there.

For instance, say I wanted to put my entire Giantstalker's gear set into a single box.

Then, let's say I had a second pair of Giantstalker's gloves and wanted to make another gear set for tiers 1-9 Hunter gloves (wishful thinking. This probably wouldn't happen).

No issues there.

(There would obviously be some sort of limit as to how much gear goes into each "box". Probably up to 9 because the highest known amount of gear pieces in a gear set is 9).

This is NOT linked to the equipment manager, by the way!

Comment by SJPadbury

on 2011/01/25 17:49:12

I wonder, why do you have so many tabards?Most of the rep ones you can go back and re-buy if you really want them.I only have the irreplacable ones in my bank, and most of those are just the TCG loot ones.I also have the one from the Scourge Invasion, the Scarlet Monestary one (since I don't want to have to farm the drop) and I could see having the one from the opening of the dark portal, although as a draenei shaman, I obviously don't have that one...

Comment by Sweetscot

on 2011/01/25 17:50:12

They have been talking about that Tabard change for like a year now. They need to just do *something*. I don't care if the solution is elegant. I care that I have 25+ tabards taking up one slot each in my bank.

Much longer than that, I know the drop down list style was in fairly heavy discussion before wrath hit.

Comment by Monday

on 2011/01/25 17:59:11

Most of the rep ones you can go back and re-buy if you really want them.

Because I like the way some of them look?

Comment by Interest

on 2011/01/25 18:00:38

I wonder, why do you have so many tabards?Most of the rep ones you can go back and re-buy if you really want them.I only have the irreplacable ones in my bank, and most of those are just the TCG loot ones.I also have the one from the Scourge Invasion, the Scarlet Monestary one (since I don't want to have to farm the drop) and I could see having the one from the opening of the dark portal, although as a draenei shaman, I obviously don't have that one...

My thoughts exactly.

Comment by DarkAngl777

on 2011/01/25 18:14:36

I guess a good way to handle the tabard issue is give people the option to buy a new tab kile guild tabs or another bank slot

Comment by Vurrashko

on 2011/01/25 19:31:13

There are a number of tabards you cannot just buy again. Compare what Garyl has to offer to the other stuff. It is not only the option to "just buy them again" if possible, its rather... "I want to equip this particular tabard NOW!"I would be so happy to see the Tabard storage to be just like the keyring...

For the Item Sets I'd like to see something as plain and easy like they did with the Zul Gurub Raid and anyoftheseguys. You could trash a piece of your ZG by accident, come back to the related fella of your class and says "hey dude... I had an accident..." and he created the base item for you. On that note; I was wise enough to recreate the entire ZG Set before the Shattering because *drumroll* the whole Zandalar Tribe was gone afterwards.

Having NPCs in any Major City that hand you out any set item you once had would be so superior!

Comment by Fyrite

on 2011/01/25 20:25:06

If you're gonna talk about things you want....

I want two sets of character equip slots. An inner, and an outer layer. The inner layer, would be your tier 15billion uber leet epic gear (or nearest equivalent) and the outer layer, would be cosmetic. If you don't like the look of your tier 15billion gear (or nearest equivalent) use ctrl + left click on items to find something you like. I absoloutely ADORE the bloodhawk claymore, especially when it's enchanted to give a slight red glow. But outside of very strict RP, I can't use it at all. There's even certain pieces of low level gear, gained from quests, that are UNIQUE, they have no other item in the game that looks exactly like it, that can be gotten from farming for endless hours.

To recap. Inner layer = stats. Outer layer = look.

I would love for this idea to be implemented, seeing as they're talking about cosmetic changes, but seriously, do they really have the time to spare to code a second equipslot cage for characters, remove class limitations from the equipable slots, and code it so that it's purely a cosmetic difference? That's probably weeks or even months of work right there.

Captcha code Rebecca Reespe

With a really, really, really, really f'ed up first e in Reespe

Comment by MOLDINAR

on 2011/01/25 20:39:51

if i wanted to pvp , i would have joined a pvp server ! pvp is crap, and i don't like that i'm forced into it to get gear. thus sayeth the healer " got band-aides?"

Comment by Vurrashko

on 2011/01/25 21:08:54

If you're gonna talk about things you want....I want two sets of character equip slots. An inner, and an outer layer

Champions Online, DC Online, I believe City of Heroes/Villains had that as well, Guildwars 2 is going to have it, and the list certainly continues.I feel you, I could not agree more with you! Its just, I was being realistic with the paradigm of World of Warcraft and the design philosophy which I am afraid will not change to a different pattern any time soon. So I tried to bring an idea of possibility instead of wetting my pants :3

Comment by KingdomKnight

on 2011/01/25 21:38:36

They have been talking about that Tabard change for like a year now. They need to just do *something*. I don't care if the solution is elegant. I care that I have 25+ tabards taking up one slot each in my bank.